Deputy constable killed in Brownsville crash remembered as ‘one of the great ones’
An empty patrol unit outside the office of the Cameron County Precinct 1 Constable is now a memorial honoring a fallen deputy constable.
Cameron County Precinct 1 Deputy Constable Ruben Garcia was killed in a Monday crash on Highway 48 in Brownsville. The driver accused of causing the deadly crash remains hospitalized and will be charged in Garcia’s death, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
READ MORE: Driver in crash that killed Cameron County deputy constable in custody
The empty patrol unit was surrounded Tuesday with flowers, a teddy bear, and a black ribbon with Garcia’s badge number, 915.
Garcia’s colleagues described him as a man they won't soon forget.
“He's just a great — one of the great ones,” Cameron County Precinct 1 Constable Norman Esquivel said. “A good man with a badge who always wanted to help others."
Family and friends say they were left in shock at the sudden loss of Garcia.
“He was a great man,” Cameron County Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Benito Ochoa said. “I knew him personally as a friend — he was a friend of our families."
As his force mourns the loss of one of their own, constable Esquivel said he wants the community to remember the commitment law enforcement make enforcement officers make every day.
“When we put this badge and uniform on every single day, we go out to protect those who we love, and we know, and those we don't know,” Esquivel said.
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